Something strange is happening with the WiseTech Global Ltd (ASX: WTC) share price this week. Not that it's immediately obvious by looking at this ASX 200 tech stock and volatile market darling today.
As it currently stands, Wisetech shares are up a healthy 2.18% at $117.52 each. That's after the logistics solutions provider closed at $115 a share yesterday and opened at $118.21 this morning (a gain worth 2.8% at the time).
Despite Wisetech stock trending lower since market open, its performance still looks pretty impressive, considering that the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is 'only' up by 1.34% at present.
However, it's Wisetech stock's performance over the week thus far that is strange. Today's hefty bump comes after several days of heavy selling pressure. On Monday, the Wisetech share price crashed 3.6% lower, followed by another 1.4% dip on Tuesday.
Yesterday saw the company lose an additional 3.7%. So even after today's rally, the Wisetech share price has still retreated around 6.7% from where it finished last week.
At yesterday's close, the Wisetech share price was at its lowest point since October of last year.
A report in The Australian yesterday identifies a possible cause for this steep selling pressure.
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Big selling for this ASX 200 tech stock
The report reveals that trading volumes in yesterday's session were "9 times average, including two blocks worth $47m and $84.6m respectively, pointing to institutional selling".
Such heavy trading blocks indicate the possibility that the seller is none other than Wisetech co-founder and former CEO, Richard White.
As we've regularly documented, White has been a prolific seller of his vast Wisetech holdings for a while now. He also recently received a $285 million boost to his position at the company, thanks to a stock sale from Wisetech's other co-founder, Maree Isaacs.
There have been no ASX releases out of Wisetech itself to confirm or deny any involvement from White. But with block sales of this size, we do arguably have a smoking gun here.
Either White has offloaded some of his recently-acquired shares, or a big fund manager is firesaling its Wisetech position. We'll have to wait and see what the company comes out with in the next few days to know for sure.
Wisetech share price snapshot
Despite some blockbuster volatility in recent months, long-term Wisetech shareholders have still done remarkably well out of their investment.
As it stands today, the Wisetech share price remains up a whopping 62.6% over the past 12 months, and up around 125% since January 2023. See for yourself below:
At the current share price, Wisetech stock is trading on a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 148.3, with a dividend yield of 0.14%.
